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Topic: The Modern Wages of Notable Public Rudeness (Read 5402 times)

A person I will call H.R. is not rich, and not, in the typical sense of the word, "famous."

However, she's about to be infamous.

That's because H.R was being very rude on a train (by cursing loudly), and when asked by the conductor to stop, she became even ruder, berating the conductor and bragging of her superior education. If someone described her behavior to you, you might think it was one of those Etiquette Hell threads that you suspect are made up for drama.

But someone got her tirade on tape, and it went viral and got posted on high-traffic sites, and internet folks figured out who she was and posted her name everywhere, and now H.R. (who has been desperately taking down her Facebook and LinkedIn and MySpace profiles, to late] is modern-infamous.

In another age, she would have been a soon-forgotten story by the few strangers who observed her.

In the age if cell phone cameras and Google, she is going to be known for, at least, YEARS (if not the rest of her life) for acting this way.

As lawyers say at the end of mean letters, "conduct yourself accordingly."

[One could have a very interesting moral and ethical discussion about whether it is right to film a stranger being very rude in public, and whether it is right to post that film on the internet, and whether it is right to figure out the person's name and post it. Whatever the moral and etiquette answers to those questions, the practical fact remains that if you are rude in public in a manner notable enough to be outrageous or amusing to strangers, you may find yourself famous.]

[Edit: Gawker link has rude words in its comments. The post does not seem to have H.R.'s name, which I chose not to post here.]

I have no sympathy for someone who becomes infamous do to a video-taped tantrum. In this modern world, there is one more reason besides etiquette and sanity and reasonableness not to throw a hissy-fit in public - even if none of those afore-mentioned reasons move you, you should assume someone nearby has a camera. If you choose to disregard ALL of that, you deserve the humiliation of being Internetified!

Maybe eventually this phenomenon of the various backlashes will start causing people to act like adults in public (after all, we hear so often that modern technology is making people ruder - maybe this is a way it could lead to a trend back towards politeness!)

Incidentally, if you must throw a fit in public, it would be better to be named something like "John Smith." Not H.R. -- which is a very distinctive name. The first three pages of Google hits for H.R.'s name now lead directly to stories about her behavior.

As a regular rider of Metro North who has to sometimes sit next to obnoxious snobs like this, I'm hoping this viral video makes some of them think twice before they disturb other riders with their tiresome/offensive/loud conversations (usually made on cellphones). Sadly, there are many more like her, who think that living in certain zip codes allows them to treat others as if they are lessers. I'm going to watch this video until I memorize her face, and wave at her if I see her on the train.

What I love is that she insists she was having a private conversation with a friend and since there doesn't appear to be anyone with her I'm going to guess she was talking on the phone. She's implying everyone that was forced to listen to her conversation were rude for listening in.

Ed, I'm guessing HR are this woman's initials which I assume are posted elsewhere on the internet.

Yes, but they'll complain bitterly that it's political oppression for anyone in authority to use them.

Logged

My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

This one is a little tough for me, because I'm so consistently in favor of protecting privacy on the Internet. For example, I think it's extremely rude to take photos at an event and then tag them on Facebook without the owner's permission, even in a limited distribution group.

Obviously, I don't care about HR or what happens to her. She's not worth my time. But if I think it's wrong in principle to film people, identify them and post it all online, then I shouldn't say this is ok, because it boils down to where one draws the line. And that gets so situational! What if someone thinks a woman breastfeeding in a restroom is disgusting, so they go the same route? Would she be applauded by people who feel the same way? If so, the action drives the ethics, and that's not logical.

I also (sadly) disagree with people who say this will hopefully teach everyone a lesson. For every one person who might change behavior because of this, there will probably be 10 who would love their 15 minutes of fame. They'll never get it any other way, so they might as well aim for Boor of the Year.

Mikayla I have to agree with you. While I applaud boors getting taught a lesson, I have to say I am disturbed by the number of people who are okay with the womans identity being revealed like that. It just seems to me that that is taking it too far.

I also agree though that with the number of video phones and cameras out there on cells these days, you'd really think people would no better by now than to act like boors in public. But then again, that's also asking boors to consider anything about anyone else in public too...

This one is a little tough for me, because I'm so consistently in favor of protecting privacy on the Internet. For example, I think it's extremely rude to take photos at an event and then tag them on Facebook without the owner's permission, even in a limited distribution group.

Obviously, I don't care about HR or what happens to her. She's not worth my time. But if I think it's wrong in principle to film people, identify them and post it all online, then I shouldn't say this is ok, because it boils down to where one draws the line. And that gets so situational! What if someone thinks a woman breastfeeding in a restroom is disgusting, so they go the same route? Would she be applauded by people who feel the same way? If so, the action drives the ethics, and that's not logical.

I also (sadly) disagree with people who say this will hopefully teach everyone a lesson. For every one person who might change behavior because of this, there will probably be 10 who would love their 15 minutes of fame. They'll never get it any other way, so they might as well aim for Boor of the Year.